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Rich Copper Mine of Myagdi Remains Unearthed for Decades

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Rich Copper Mine of Myagdi Remains Unearthed for Decades
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June 6: The local government of Malika Rural Municipality in western Myagdi is losing millions of rupees in revenue while the locals are deprived of job opportunities as the authorities concerned have failed to operate a highly rich copper mine in Bhirkhani of Okharbot in the rural municipality.

The copper mine used to be extracted regularly from 1961 to 1985 but the extraction came to a halt after than due to the hike in tax by the then government.

Before 1985, around 200 workers were employed at the mine. Every day, they used to extract around 20 kg of copper, according to chairman of Malika Rural Municipality ward-4 Dilip Sherchan, who was a village chieftan back during the Panchayat era.

Sherchan recalls that the copper extracted from the mine used to be sold for Rs 150 for 2.5 kg about three decades ago.

Sherchan further said that an examination of the mine by a team from India about five decades ago had revealed that there were possibilities of gold in the mine. Four years later, late king Birendra Shah had visited the mine and ordered to run the mine in a properly managed way.

The mine which was running smoothly until 1985 stopped operation after the government increased the tax. Failure to pay the tax, lack of technical experts and equipment resulted in the closure of the mine.

At that time, the current ward chair Sherchan had obtained the license to extract the metal.

According to 83-year-old Dil Prasad Ghartimagar, there are two sources of copper in the mine. Each of the areas where the copper is accumulated is around 300 square meters.

After being elected in the local polls of 2017, Sherchan took the recommendations from the local unit and requested the Department of Mines in Kathmandu for operating the mine but in vain. He says he made five futile attempts to reopen the mine but the Kathmandu-based government authority did not allow to do so.

 

 

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